Children's Use of the Bearing Angle in Interceptive Actions

Abstract

The authors investigated the effect of ball velocity and walking direction on children’s adherence to the constant bearing angle (CBA) strategy. Children (N = 20) approached a moving ball to manually intercept it at a predefined target area. Results revealed that 10- to 12-year-olds adhered more than 5- to 7-year-olds to the CBA strategy. Younger children deviated more than older children from smaller angles of approach and lower ball velocities. The present findings suggest that younger children have difficulty adjusting to task requirements because they fail to couple walking velocity with ball velocity. The improvement seen with increasing age suggests that compliance with the CBA strategy may be attributed to older children’s enhanced coincidence anticipation.